


Just listen to me!

by TonyStark941



Series: Avengers Angst-Verse (ONE-SHOTS) [4]
Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Arc Reactor, Arc Reactor Angst, Arc Reactor Failure, Arc Reactor Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, Hospitals, Like a literal arc reactor heart, Oblivious Avengers, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Team as Family, Tony Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 11:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17059097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonyStark941/pseuds/TonyStark941
Summary: Tony Stark has a heart. Two in fact. His real, living, beating heart, and the arc reactor. But what happens when both of them fail?Basically a fic where Tony's arc reactor stops working and he almost dies mid-battle. Cue the angst!





	Just listen to me!

“Stark.” Came a sharp voice, clear and strong through the phone. 

Tony sighed to himself. He wasn’t in the mood. “Hi.” 

“Avengers debrief in 5 minutes. Be there.” Fury said, and he clicked off the phone. 

Well, that was great. Fantastic. Really, it was awesome. 

Because his arc reactor was due for a check-up (well, had been due for a check-up about two weeks ago), and now he had an avengers meeting to go to. 

That sucked, but so did Tony’s life. And his heart. His stupid, weak, only-half-there heart sucked the life out of him sometimes. 

Today was one of those times. 

“Tony?” Steve called from the kitchen. “Was that Fury?” 

Tony sighed again. Damn Steve and his super hearing- they could’ve skipped the meeting and pretended not to here. “It was Fury.” He climbed of the sofa, wincing at the pain shooting through his chest. He groaned. “Debrief in  
5.”

Steve nodded. “I’ll call the rest of the team.” He said and jogged out with far too much energy for a 100-something year old man. Ugh. “See you there!” he said brightly (damn Steve and his good moods).

“Yeah…” Tony grumbled to himself. “See you there.”

Suddenly, hot-red pain collided with Tony’s chest, and he crumpled to the floor, letting out an involuntary cry of pain. “Oh shit, J-JARVIS.” He cried out. “What’s going on?” He rolled into a sitting position, and he rubbed his chest,  
panting heavily. “Oh shit, it hurts.”

JARVIS’ voice filled the room. “It looks like you have an infection in your chest cavity which seems to be affecting the performance of the arc reactor. Would you like me to call an amb-”

“N-no. I’ve got to go to the debrief. It will be important.” Tony gasped. The pain began to ease, but his heart still beat erratically from under his hand. “It can’t take that long…and then I’ll go and ask Bruce to get it checked out.”

“Sir…I really would advise-”

“No. No, I have to go. I’m sorry. I’ll see you later.” Tony said, and he stumbled out of the door and into his Iron Man suit. 

“Full power to the thrusters.” Tony said. He was already 3 minutes late. 

JARVIS’ objected. “Sir! I told you that the arc reactor is not functioning efficiently. I don’t think it would be wise to-”

“Just do it.” The power increased, but so did the pain in Tony’s chest. It was hard to ignore, but he carried on flying. “It’ll be fine.” He repeated those three words like a mantra in his head the whole way through his journey. 

For the first time ever, it was a relied to set foot on SHIELD Headquarters. He marched over to the Avengers base, resisting the urge to rest his hand on the chest piece his arc reactor lay under.

“Stark.” Fury said, as Tony opened the door to a conference table full of Avengers. “You’re late.” He said shortly. There was no question that he was angry- Tony could tell it straight away from the twitch of his (only remaining)  
eye. 

“Yeah…sorry about that. But I do have to run a company.” Tony said defensively. He stepped out of the Iron Man suit and into the empty chair opposite Steve. 

“You look like shit.” Natasha said shortly. He glared at her, but said nothing. He hated to admit it, but he was unnerved by the way she was scrutinising him so carefully. 

He would be damned if they found out about the arc reactor causing him pain constantly. Tony didn’t want to seem weaker than he already was. 

“Right. A man named Kyle Ekklesaft had built drones with a close resemblance to that of the Iron Man suits, and we have been tipped off that they will be causing some chaos in Central Park today.” Fury said, his eyes darting to  
Tony. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Tony banged his head on the table, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Steve frown in curiosity. 

“What’s wrong with him?” He asked. 

Bruce spoke. “Didn’t this happen with Hammer…and also Vanko?” Tony groaned again and nodded, but his groan was not of annoyance this time, but of pain. He hated to admit it, but the arc reactor was hurting like a bitch. 

Fury clapped his hands. “Right, agents have told me that there are drones flying around Central Park, so I would take the Quinjet.” Fury turned his attention to Steve. “I trust you will make the order, Captain?” He said, giving them  
a passing glance before striding out of the room, his coat swinging dramatically behind him.

“Right. Tony, Thor, you two are in the skies. We need you to try and stop the drones from causing too much damage.” Steve said. “Clint, we need you to find their week spot. Bruce, we may need the hulk later on, so stay alert in  
the Quinjet. You’re also on medical duty for civilians.” Bruce nodded and cleaned his glasses. “Natasha and I will try and take down Ekkelsaft.”

The dramatic son of a bitch paused. “Avengers Assemble!” He deadpanned, before picking up his cowl and SHIELD from where they had lain on the table. 

Tony put the Iron Man suit on. “Sir, the arc reactor has gotten worse. It is only functioning at 78% efficiency, and in approximately 12 minutes, plasma discharge will begin to fill up your lungs.” JARVIS said. 

Oh shit. Oh shit, shit, shit, Tony thought. Another sharp pain hit his chest and he gasped. Tony was so glad that he was wearing the suit, because he probably would’ve been collapsed on the floor if he hadn’t. 

“Uh…you guys. I think I might have to sit this one out. There’s something wrong with the-” Tony tried. 

“Cut the chatter, Stark.” Steve said shortly, sharply. More pain sliced through his heart, and Tony almost moaned in agony. “There are people’s lives in danger- what could possibly be more important than saving them?” Steve  
asked, determination clear in his voice. 

Tony didn’t know what to say. But he honestly couldn’t say anything because he was biting his lip so hard to stop cries of pain coming out of his mouth. “I really don’t think I can-”

“Tony.” It was Steve again. “If you get hurt, hurt them back. It’s okay to be scared, but you’re an Avenger now, and we believe that you can fight off these people. It will be fine, Tony.” 

What? What the fuck. What the actual fuck- was Steve being serious. Did Steve seriously think that it was because Tony was scared. Natasha had written a whole report on his suicidal tendencies- Steve really thought that Tony  
didn’t want to do it because he was scared of getting killed. 

No one spoke up to even come to Tony’s defence. Well fuck them. Fuck them all. He would show them. He would show them not to mess with Tony Stark. “It’s fine. I’m coming in T-minus 2 minutes.”

“Sir…”

“Just don’t, JARVIS. Just forget it.” Tony said, unable to keep the sadness out of his voice. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”

Tony knew that that was the opposite of what would happen, and he guessed JARVIS did to, from the silence on his end. 

Tony really did try to ignore the pain and focus on destroying the drones, but he was getting tired and his limbs felt sore and heavy. He could barely keep his eyes open, and JARVIS had told him that the plasma filling up his lungs  
was depriving him off the oxygen. 

Clint managed to shoot an arrow onto the remote that controlled the drones, causing them to stop working. The fight was hard, and no one had managed to escape without injuries. Natasha had taken a particularly bad hit, and it  
looked like she had a broken wrist of some sort. Clint was rubbing his abdomen, which probably signified broken ribs. 

Tony felt like he was dying. No, scratch that. Tony was dying. Slowly, painfully, he was fading away. He couldn’t see anything, and black dots swarmed in his vision. 

He somehow found the strength to trudge onto the Quinjet, where Bruce and a team of medical staff were tending to a few wounds.

“Right.” Steve began. “We need to go to medical, and then to debriefing.” He started to talk about something, but Tony couldn’t listen, couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. 

“JARVIS?” 

“You are going to have to remove the reactor, sir. It is causing a build up in plasma, and the plasma is sending poison into your bloodstream. It is also restricting your breathing space.”

“Open the suit, J” He croaked. He could barely breathe, and he didn’t even think he was fully conscious.

He fell out, stumbling to the ground, where he leant against the wall of the jet. 

He saw his teammates look at him in confusion and fear when they saw the state of him. “Tony?” 

“Tony? What’s going on?”

“Stark! Can you hear me.” 

Tony fumbled put his hand under his shirt and unclicked the arc reactor. A croak of pain was all he could manage. 

“Tony, stop! What are you doing? What’s wrong with you?” Bruce cried, anxiously hovering over Tony. 

“Bad…reactor…plasma…poison.” Tony croaked, letting out a silent cry of pain as he pulled the arc reactor out completely, throwing it on the floor where it lay, the bright blue light shining innocently. 

“Wh-what?” 

Tony was on the edge of consciousness. “JARVIS…e-explain.”

And then Tony was out like a light. 

____

When Tony awoke, he felt pain. Simple, undiluted pain. 

“Ouch…” he said. “Ouch.” 

He looked down at his chest and saw bandages wrapped around, and relief washed over him when he saw the light of a new reactor beaming out. 

“God that hurt.”

Suddenly a face came into his line of sight. It was Steve. He looked so dishevelled and lost and sad and worried that Tony just wanted to throw his arms around him and cry into his shoulder. He didn’t though, because that would  
be incredibly weird of him. 

“You told us…and we didn’t listen. We didn’t listen.” Steve repeated, looking so sad. “Tony, we didn’t listen to you."

Tony shook his head. “Yeah, and fuck you for that.” Steve visibly hunched in on himself. “But it’s okay- I’m safe now. I’m fine.” He said, but it felt more like he was reassuring himself and not Steve. 

“No. You’re not. They had to drain your longs because this plasma had gotten in because there was an infection in you arc reactor and you didn’t get it checked out and you could’ve died because of me.” Steve rambled on. 

“Tony. I swear to God, if you do that again, I will not hesitate to kill you.” Clint said. “Bruce was a mess. You just passed out and you had this massive hole in your chest.”

Thor. “You stopped breathing, friend Stark. We thought you dead.”

Natasha. “Why didn’t you just tell us, Antoshka?” 

Steve again. “You need to start looking after yourself, Tony. That means making sure you check your arc reactor regularly, making sure that this never happens again.” 

“I know, I know.” Tony said. “I just got kinda busy, you know?” 

Bruce shook his head. “No. No, Tony. We need you alive because we love you and because you are part of our family. I don’t know what we would’ve all done with ourselves if you had died.” Tony couldn’t help but tear up. 

“I’m sorry guys. It…it won’t happen again.” Tony said, and he meant it. 

The six talked about everything and anything, and, by the end of it, they were all sleeping peacefully, snuggled up against each other like one, big family. 

Because they weren’t simply a family. They were Tony’s family.


End file.
